Eoin Morgan held his nerve to help guide Middlesex to a six-wicket LV= County Championship victory over Durham at Lord's on Saturday.

Needing 44 with eight wickets intact at the start of play, Middlesex had added only three when Adam Voges departed in the third over. But Morgan converted his overnight 23 into an unbeaten 39, while skipper Neil Dexter survived a shaky start to make 25 and all but get the hosts to their victory target of 147.

Voges fell without addition to his 36 when he shaped to pull a ball from Graham Onions and misjudged the bounce, succeeding only in offering a simple catch to wicketkeeper Phil Mustard.

Only five runs had been added in five overs before Morgan, making his first championship appearance of the season, relieved the tension by driving Rushworth through the covers for four.

Dexter then twice drove Onions to the boundary wide of mid off and, with the help of a few edges, only 10 were needed by the time Ben Stokes replaced Onions.

In attempting to drive the winning run off Stokes, Dexter sliced a catch to Will Smith at point, leaving John Simpson to finish it two balls later with a single to cover.

The win took Middlesex above their visitors into third place. Both teams have five wins and as Durham have a game in hand, they are still in contention.

There were queries about the pitch after 32 wickets fell on the first two days, but Onions said: "It wasn't a 400 pitch but it wasn't as bad as the scores suggested. A lot of good balls have been bowled and Middlesex won because they out-batted us."